Make a No-Sew Poodle Skirt

Monday, May 16, 2011

For our 50's Sock Hop birthday party I made 10 poodle skirts as dress-up favors for the girls to wear during the party, then take home. I wanted to keep them simple and low-cost. I made them for about $6 per skirt. Once I made the first one, the rest were much quicker to make so I thought I'd share how I did them to save you some time. I'll admit I don't like making things that require sewing patterns or pinning fabric. I always end up using my seam ripper. So I came up with this NO-SEW pattern to make a poodle skirt. I also needed them to be adjustable because we had very different waist sizes coming to this party that I couldn't measure in advance. These are perfect for a Halloween costume, playing dress-up or for a dance recital.

Materials Needed

For Skirt:

Measure waist to knees of the girl. However long you want it to go, double that number Then add 8. That is how big you'll want your square of fabric. I wanted 17 inches long(doubled is 34 inches) plus 8 (for the waist cut) to make the square 42 x 42 inches to start. (Waist to knee length + 8 = length of 1 side of fabric square.)

7 inch x 7 inch square of white felt (could use black) If you're just making one skirt you could easily buy the 8.5 x 11 sheet of felt from your craft store. If you need to make more, I recommend buying the 72 inch felt off the bolt.

17. Next, layout your velcro, one on outside top corner edge of skirt, one on inside top corner edge. You want the pokey part of the velcro so it will stick to the skirt once you wrap it. Now iron both pieces on as directed by the velcro package.

18. Try it on. Wrap it around your daughter and the velcro will stick to the skirt where needed. Works for larger and smaller waists.

If you'd prefer to sew a skirt for everyday wear, check out the circle skirt tutorial on MADE. She has tips that would help you with this skirt as well.

When you need to make a quick skirt or a lot for a group, this pattern is perfect, but if you aren't the crafty type or would rather save time you can always just purchase a skirt on Amazon. The $14 price is great. (Disclosure: As an Amazon Affiliate, I do receive a small percentage of sales made using the link below. Thanks!)

Children's Books:

At obSEUSSed, we feature children's books and activities. We want families connecting their activities and reading experiences. If you make this skirt, check out a poodle related book at your local library or try one of these books from Amazon.

I also found some fabulous paper dolls with 50's fashion and poodle skirts from Paper Studio Press.

See how to make a matching poodle skirt for an 18 inch doll.
I really wanted the Maryellen American Girl doll (for myself ;) but we made the skirt for my daughter's doll and she was happy to have the matching skirts.

If you try making a skirt I'd love to see pictures. If you post it online, leave a link in the comments below or send me an email (obSEUSSed (at) live.com)
Let me know if you have any questions about making your own poodle skirt.

UPDATE: November 2016. I love seeing all the comments of those who have used this tutorial to help them make skirts. I'd love to see your pictures. Email me a photo of how yours turned out and I'll add it to this post for others to see. Email obSEUSSed (at) live.com (or click the email button in the top right column). Thanks so much! It makes my day to see others successfully making these cute skirts.

YOU DID IT! Comments and photos from readers who made the skirts. They turned out Swell!!

Rebecca in Texas said: "Just wanted to say thanks for posting your tutorial. I discovered it through a Google search when I found out my daughters' school would have 50's Day. I'm not crafty at all and was pretty intimidated to take on such a project, but your easy instructions made it a breeze. My girls love their skirts and I had enough scraps to make one for their baby sister as well!"

Thanks again and please keep blogging! Rebecca"

Mike in Georgia made these for his twin daughters:

"I had no experience and bought a yard and half of each felt, more than I needed since each girl was 14+8 and 16+8 for size.

I ended up cutting the wrong color first so both became 14+8. All good as they look good on the girls. They received lots of comments and even with buying extra materials and forgetting to give Joann my 40% coupon it was still less than $27 for two skirts. Two hours later (9pm to 11pm the night before the dance…) they were completed.

By the way – These are twin 8 year olds, 1 minute apart… Thank you for sharing a quick and easy plan to follow. Mike"

10/23/13 Mirna M. said "Thanks so much for the easy steps. I'm horrible crafty but this turned out pretty good. Here is my skirt."

July 2014, Kathy (@mabelgabel on Instagram) shared this photo. She used this pattern to help her group of girls at church to make their own skirts for a daddy-daughter 50's party.

Linking to more great ideas at Tip Junkie.(Disclosure: As a Google & Amazon Affiliate, I do receive a small percentage of sales made using the links below. These would be great to complete the costume or prepare for a 50's Party. Thanks!)

This is probably a stupid question, but I just can't see to get it right in my head, lol. If the circle in the middle is 16 inches - does that mean it wouldn't fit my daughter's 25 inch waist? I know you said smaller and larger waists, but I just can't seem to see how that works.... Thanks for any help! (P.S. Thanks for this tutorial too! SUCH a help!)

About to try one for my teen daughter on DT--to see it we can make them hold up thru a pep ralley dance with a 50S theme...thinking a tad more velcro and slightly larger waist....red and black of course to match our school and a paw instead of poodle as we are the Tigers...here goes nothing..

well I think I am going to be able to do this. I have a 50's theme birthday party to go to and you make it sound possible for those of us not so crafty. But do I make adj. to the waist cut if I have a 36in waist I see how to adj the lenght but is the add. 8 in we add was that for the waist cut and if so do I add more than 8 in for my waist.. or am I over thinking... HELP

Thank you so much. You saved me!! Able to make one in short time (at bedtime of course) for my daughter to wear in the morning to 50th day of school! I forgot last year and sent her in regular clothes so I wanted to make up for it this year! I think she'll be happy!! Thanks again!

Than you for this! I recently made my 12 year old son and almost 10 year old daughter watch Grease - my fave movie of all time - for the first time the other day. They LOVED it and my daughter wants to have a "Grease" birthday party. These will be perfect for the party!!!

This was a great way to make one. My daughter has a 50's day for school. I had extra fabric and craft stuff in my house and was able to make it in about 1.5 hours. She is so excited. I didn't have to buy a single thing either.

Aren't these little ladies lovely with their poodle skirt? I love you're resourcefulness in crating a n0-sew method for this cutesy skirt, thanks for the instruction will try this out though with different kind of design.

It's so lovely! But I'm just wondering whether this kind of cloth needs a specific cleansing agent to make sure that the color won't fade. Cause, I've got a silky cotton cloth in our home and I use our usual detergent on it then suddenly the color is suddenly washing off.

I was trying to figure out the waist size too - the waist opening is 8" across the DIAMETER of the hole, and we usually measure our waists around (so the circumference of the hole). A little math formula then tells us that the circumference of the hole is 8 x pi, which is roughly 25". You can adjust the skirt to any waist size smaller than 25".If you cut the waist hole larger, you'll need to add a little to the length (2" for every inch you add to the waist hole).I'm off to buy the supplies - will post a pic when I'm done. My daughter has a father daughter sock hop for Girl Scouts at the end of the month.

Thank you SO much for this tutorial! I am a kindergarten teacher stressing about making costumes for our upcoming performance. With the help of 2 parents we made 14 of these in about 1 hour, and I only spent about $40!! They are super cute as well!

I've been looking for poodle skirt tutorials for days and this is the most detailed by far! I love how you've shared other success stories with the skirts as well! I think I'm going to give it a go. Thanks for sharing!

Hi, just passing by your site to see something that will interest me and luckily you impressed me with your great article and I have a great time reading everything that is written. I'm looking forward to see more of your write-ups. If you have time you can also visit my site which indicated below.

Great directions. Thanks for including the poodle template. I made mine for my niece for a high school sock hop. Was so happy to have the poodle Bobbie socks and rhinestone glasses already. Love the creativity of people who are willing to share their ideas, how to's, and more. Thank you for making the web your classroom.

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ObSEUSSed participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, "an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com." ~~~~ When I post about books, I often link to Amazon so you can see more details, pictures or summaries. I recommend checking books out from your local library first to review them, then if you want to buy them, Amazon is one option. If you buy from using the link I provide I recieve a very small percentage of the sale from Amazon.